So we pretty much have confirmed that David isn't on the Nascar CD at all, and Bruce only contributed to one song- Don't Worry Baby, playing keyboard. Do you guys think Dean Torrence is on there? Perhaps actually providing the falsetto on Little Old Lady From Pasadena. To my ears, it actually sounds more like Dean Torrence than Adrian Baker

So we pretty much have confirmed that David isn't on the Nascar CD at all, and Bruce only contributed to one song- Don't Worry Baby, playing keyboard. Do you guys think Dean Torrence is on there? Perhaps actually providing the falsetto on Little Old Lady From Pasadena. To my ears, it actually sounds more like Dean Torrence than Adrian Baker

Just found this scan of the liner notes on Discogs. It is Dean Torrence.

So we pretty much have confirmed that David isn't on the Nascar CD at all, and Bruce only contributed to one song- Don't Worry Baby, playing keyboard. Do you guys think Dean Torrence is on there? Perhaps actually providing the falsetto on Little Old Lady From Pasadena. To my ears, it actually sounds more like Dean Torrence than Adrian Baker

Just found this scan of the liner notes on Discogs. It is Dean Torrence.

Somewhere I do own a copy of the NASCAR cd, but not sure where it is. I don't even remember that photo featuring 4 members... is that a posed shot with Mike, Bruce, Dave, and Dean? If so, I wonder if it was ever floated that Dean would join the "BBs" band in this odd transitional time. Seems odd to do a photoshoot otherwise.

So we pretty much have confirmed that David isn't on the Nascar CD at all, and Bruce only contributed to one song- Don't Worry Baby, playing keyboard. Do you guys think Dean Torrence is on there? Perhaps actually providing the falsetto on Little Old Lady From Pasadena. To my ears, it actually sounds more like Dean Torrence than Adrian Baker

Just found this scan of the liner notes on Discogs. It is Dean Torrence.

Somewhere I do own a copy of the NASCAR cd, but not sure where it is. I don't even remember that photo featuring 4 members... is that a posed shot with Mike, Bruce, Dave, and Dean? If so, I wonder if it was ever floated that Dean would join the "BBs" band in this odd transitional time. Seems odd to do a photoshoot otherwise.

He did also appear with them at that “America’s Band” Super Bowl gig that Al wasn’t invited to so it’s possible.

How did you wind up on this Brian Wilson tour?It's a funny thing. All of a sudden, I get a call from Jeff Foskett. He's Brian's musical director. He said that Brian wanted to know if I wanted to come down and do some singing parts on his new album. This was totally out of the blue. Out of the blue! I hadn't been in a studio with Brian for 40 years. I said, "Sure!"

I went down to Ocean Way and was there for about an hour, layering on parts and stuff like that. When I was leaving, Jeff said, "Hey Brian, don't you want to ask something to Blondie?" Brian goes, "Oh yeah! Do you want to come sing 'Sail On Sailor' at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles?" I said, "Oh, sure. Just give me a buzz and we'll figure it out a little later." And then it turned into two shows and another three, and now I'm being brought in on eight gigs. It's nice to be a part of it. I wasn't expecting this when I was going to the studio. It's very nice that he asked me. He's a good guy.

The one funny thing that struck me after not seeing him for a while is that I was so used to seeing him with his two brothers. When I walked into the studio and shook his hand, I was looking at him and seeing the other two, one on each side. It was a little unnerving. It tripped me out.

Not an insignificant question, but is it known when Pet Sounds was written? I mean, was Brian working on it in the summer of '65? When the BBs were approached about the follow up to Summer Days, had Brian even begun writing their next album? I know there were a few sessions in the fall, so by Oct/Nov he had a few songs in the works. I also read that I'm Waiting For The Day was copyrighted in early '64. Tony Asher didn't get involved until sometime in Dec/Jan. So, is it known if Brian was methodically writing the album over the course of, say, 6-8 months or if he wrote the majority of it relatively quickly and/or concurrently with the recording of the album?

Not an insignificant question, but is it known when Pet Sounds was written? I mean, was Brian working on it in the summer of '65? When the BBs were approached about the follow up to Summer Days, had Brian even begun writing their next album? I know there were a few sessions in the fall, so by Oct/Nov he had a few songs in the works. I also read that I'm Waiting For The Day was copyrighted in early '64. Tony Asher didn't get involved until sometime in Dec/Jan. So, is it known if Brian was methodically writing the album over the course of, say, 6-8 months or if he wrote the majority of it relatively quickly and/or concurrently with the recording of the album?

I don't know much about this, but during the I Know There's an Answer group vocal session on SoT there's a part where Brian mentions writing God Only Knows earlier that day, which I think was around March 3rd or something in the middle of the sessions for the album. No idea when the rest were written though.

Was lurking some old threads and noticed a couple of vague mentions of a 1971 Surf's Up session at Sunset Sound that was supposedly for an unused backing track. Anyone have any more info on this? Work on Smile stuff post-Smile is always dead interesting

In the 1974 BBC radio special Jack commented that they recorded a new backing track for the song Surf’s Up but scrapped it because the original track was superior to the new recording.

Huh, wonder why they even tried that instead of just using the original in the first place. Goes to show you can't improve on 1966 Brian Wilson.

I'd be interested to know if it was literally a remake of the first part or an attempt at a new backing track for the entire song, before they decided they wanted to use the vintage parts + Brian's vocal and went for the frankenstein approach instead. The percussion/saxophones on the coda of the live performances suspiciously lines up with what was supposedly on the lost Jan 23rd '67 session, so makes me wonder if they ever tried something like that in the studio going off of the instrumentation on the old AFM sheets or Carl's memory (was he there for that one?). Getting into conspiracy theory territory now though lol

Recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, Friday June 18, 1971, 10:00am-5:00pmArtist is listed as "The Beach Boys", employer name has "Brother Records" crossed off & "Marilyn Wilson" written in.Dianne Rovell is the contractor...she and "leader" Mike Rubini stayed til 5:00pm, the others only until 1:30.

Oh wow, that looks like a pretty substantial production. Whether it was just a remake of the first section or not welp there's another thing on the list of lost Beach Boys outtakes I really hope turns up one day

Had to look that one up! It's a so-called Wagner Tuba, as used by that composer as well as by the symphonist Anton Bruckner. There's a fascinating video at this link that admirably demonstrates the difference in sound between it and the more prevalent French Horn:

The majority of the instrumentation on the Surf's Up album was just the Beach Boys with a handful of session musicians contributing parts wasn't it? That's a pretty big anomaly to have a production (for a Smile track!!) outside the home studio with 12 session players and no Beach Boys. Surprised it's been talked about so little. ALAN BOYD PLEASE SAY IT STILL EXISTS

Can you watch this video and note the comments, and not be totally convinced that our society is already on an irreconciliable path towards civil war and destruction and we are totally unable to prevent it?

I was reading a post on Facebook, something about Mike’s reputation beginning to get better in 2018. But in it it mentioned Mike having to hire extra security for him and his family after the 2012 C50 ending because of death threats he was receiving. I’m assuming that was in his book (that I haven’t read), just wondered if someone could confirm that. What a shame if that’s true. I get he has a bad reputation, but why on earth would anyone stoop that low?

That’s sickening if true. I may be extremely critical of many of the choices he’s made over the years , but that’s crossing the line. Nobody should have that level of hatred,and I will never understand that